


STARBOUND

by eternities (incendiarism)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, Cyborgs, Established Relationship, Flashbacks, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamory, Sci-Fi Jargon, gay mark + 00-line in space baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26209009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incendiarism/pseuds/eternities
Summary: Mark calls it fate; Donghyuck calls it a mere stroke of luck. The rest of their crew roll their eyes, but they admit that without the two of them meeting, the rest of them probably would’ve never clicked in place, would've never met. Donghyuck agrees: Mark’shopelessin certain areas, and there's no way he'd make it on his own. Hopeless, but lovable—which is why when Mark finally gets theFireflyback in flying shape and offers to take Donghyuck along with him, Donghyuck agrees in a heartbeat.Alternatively, sometimes home is a cyborg, a few aliens, a human, and their spaceship. They're all quite keen on keeping that intact.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno/Mark Lee/Na Jaemin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	STARBOUND

**Author's Note:**

> hello hello, welcome to what might honestly be the most impulsive fic i've ever gone for! this was supposed to be a simple one-shot to fulfill my august fic, but the plot and universe spiraled far beyond what i initially expected and i rolled with it. so here we are! truly. my doc title is 'this was never meant to get this out of hand what the fuck.' i wrote this first chapter in two days.
> 
> anyways, thank you for clicking! this one is brought to you by 7dream live as well as remembering just how much i like gravity by exo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here is a little [reference sheet](https://hereinevitably.dreamwidth.org/7857.html) i made for keeping track of some of the terms!

In the midst of the drugged skies—hazy and smeared, filled with slowly spinning dust that simmers a faded sort of gold—the _Firefly_ makes her proud descent, landing smoothly onto the dock.

Donghyuck hums as he rummages around for the masks stashed somewhere in the storage area. They’d thankfully found the air to be manageable after reading up on the planet’s atmosphere, so he doesn’t need the heavy-duty ones. But the dust still poses a problem, and it’s better safe to be sorry, so he digs out three filters to bring with them. One for himself, the other two for Renjun and Mark. Jeno is made out of too much metal for any stray particles to bother him, and Jaemin is… Jaemin.

The lucky bastards. Fucking cyborgs and Eildreds with their insane durability.

Renjun takes his with a grimace, which Donghyuck sympathizes with—they’re hardly comfortable, after all, nor are they the most fashionable. Mark, however, appears to be exceptionally cheerful today, even more than usual, and accepts the mask without much of a second thought.

Donghyuck’s own mood lightens when he steps off the _Firefly_ and onto the planet—the gravity here is weak, weaker than anything else he’s felt in bands. He gives a little laugh as he prances around for a few steps, delighting in how much air-time he can get with minimal energy expended. Renjun soon joins him, and the two of them play-fight until Mark tells them to knock it off and get back on track.

“We’re here to restock,” he reminds them, though the smile on his face softens the reprimand. “Not to mess around. If you two get hurt from tussling and we have to waste med supplies, _I swear to all the stars_ —”

“Aye aye, _Captain_. We’ll cut it out,” Donghyuck shoots back, always keen to rub Mark’s title back at him. It’s mostly more decorative than anything, and Donghyuck will never get tired of throwing it in Mark’s face.

Sometimes he gets a proper rise out of the other. But this time Mark’s content with merely rolling his eyes and telling him that he’s on food and living necessities duty with Jaemin, leaving Mark, Renjun, and Jeno to handle getting ship parts and other odd bits-and-bobs that they might need. A system of splitting up into twos and threes that they’d developed, maximizing efficiency while also making sure that everyone had at least someone else to cover their back if things got ugly.

Donghyuck sticks his tongue out at Mark, but hurries to catch up to Jaemin nonetheless.

—

The marketplace is bustling when they arrive, with dozens of different races traversing the lined-up stands. The typical Axids and Vei, as widespread as they are across this galaxy, but a few rarer ones as well. Donghyuck swears that he spots the telltale pink complexion and twisted horns of a Cril before they duck out of sight and— _wow, they’re a long way from home_.

Not that he’s one to judge, of course. He’s millions of cubits away from Eonix after all.

He muses that _home_ is a slippery, relative term as Jaemin nudges him towards a stand selling drinks—bright, bubbling, neon—and whines at Donghyuck to buy him the glowing pink one. Which Donghyuck obliges, shelling out a few coins from his personal wallet and speaking to the shopkeeper in one of the more common universal languages. Stilted with a bit of an accent, but still passable.

The smile on Jaemin’s face is worth the hassle. Mostly.

Donghyuck purchases a drink for himself as well—this one a more unassuming pastel color—to sip at as they run through the rest of their rounds, picking up basic meats and greens as well as some more specialized entrees: the Ziblian tea that Renjun’s currently hooked on, the fish chips that Donghyuck owes Jeno after accidentally finishing his stash earlier that loop. Donghyuck and Jaemin make a good pair, both fairly skilled at charming their way into lower prices and better deals, and Donghyuck notes smugly that they’ve still got a good portion of their allotted group funds left when they finish.

With their bartering adventures, however, comes a loss of speed, meaning that they come home far later to the trio making out lazily with their extra time. Jaemin squawks at being left out, and launches himself at the nearest body in retaliation, who happens to be Renjun. The poor soul. He sighs in the most long-suffering way that he can manage, but gives up his affection to Jaemin all the same.

_Sap_ , Donghyuck thinks fondly, before ducking into the kitchen to pack away their acquired foodstuff.

—

As a part of a group of rogues, Donghyuck is used to odd jobs. They do pretty much whatever Taeyong asks of them, be it transportation requests, grand theft, or bounty hunting. Anything that puts money in their bank accounts is a go for them, really, meaning that Donghyuck’s racked up quite the resume. He could probably go for half the careers offered on this side of the universe with his skillset, if not for the whole ‘living under the radar, completely unregistered’ part. As well as being wanted on a smattering of planets for his assassin work, but. Details.

Bottom line is that this job— _transport these crystals to a moon in the next solar system over, and be careful Mark, they’re_ fragile, _if I get any complaints about their condition I’ll whoop your ass_ —isn’t anything out of the ordinary. The pay is decent, and the destination is close enough that Mark deems it unnecessary to have to waste energy warping over. Meaning that soon, the _Firefly_ ’s navigator is set, and they’re on their way. The planet is near the edge of the solar system as well, far away from its sun, so the path should be fairly clear—space traffic tends to only get ugly when you’re traveling between the inner planets.

In hindsight, maybe that’s their greatest mistake, where it all went wrong. Overconfidence.

They’re cruising on autopilot. Donghyuck’s with Renjun in the observatory—the latter fills out their records, logging the expenses of their recent restock as well as the projected income from this newest job, while Donghyuck looks on with his head on Renjun’s shoulder. Careful to avoid crushing the wings tucked into the other’s back. When Renjun lets out a huff of annoyance at the unwieldy numbers flashing in front of him on the hologram, Donghyuck slowly runs his hand up and down one of the wings.

_A gesture of comfort_ , Renjun had explained, way back when they were still getting used to each other. _And a show of trust from me. Not every Zaevud will let you get close enough to touch them. Most would rip your heads off before you can even try it._ He flashes a wry grin, snaggle-toothed and oh-so-pretty. _Don’t worry though, I won’t. Probably._

A crash startles Donghyuck out of his memories. Loud and piercing, the distinct sound of metal grinding on metal. The _Firefly_ shudders, and her passengers stumble with her. An alarm blares, signalling evac-protocol, and the pair rise from their positions in tandem to make their way to the escape pods.

Although it’s uncommon that things like this happen, they do have established procedures for… less than ideal situations. Designated escape pods and whatnot—some of them are better pilots than others, but all of them can hold their own flying in a pinch.

According to the color of the alarm system—a cool aquamarine—the _Firefly_ isn’t under sustained attack, but the damage from the initial impact is too grave to stay behind and immediately repair. Which means that under this protocol, you get in your own pod and you high-tail it _out of there_. Put a good amount of distance between yourself and your ship. Cross your fingers, hope that nothing too important explodes, rendezvous at a later point once everything is deemed safe.

They have communicators and location trackers built into their pods and suits as well, but they don’t have much of a use immediately after evac. The entire crew is competent enough to handle things by themselves, and following their initial check-ins to make sure that everyone made it to their respective capsules safely, they return to silence in order to conserve energy.

It’s a waiting game for now. Nothing but Donghyuck and the yawning jaws of outer space for company.

In his tiny pod, Donghyuck is reminded once more of just how large the universe truly is. His heart rate stutters in the middle of its steady pulse as he settles the spacecraft into a steady float. It would be so, so easy to get lost out here. So easy that Donghyuck can’t even wrap his head around just how much area there is to fall into and never make it back.

That’s the thing about space though. It’s something so big and grand that you can't possibly comprehend it all at once.

And, perhaps to comprehend it all at once is to do the whole thing a great disservice, because it’s meant to always lie outside the range of what you're able to process. No matter how easy it might be to warp yourself across half the universe in less than a tick, there’ll still be an infinite amount of uncharted territory left that you can only hope to cover. You look up, and your heart dives into your stomach at the thought of just how much you don’t know.

It’s overwhelming, but Donghyuck thinks that to be able to have even a sliver of that endless panorama is worth everything.

To settle down on a planet gives all of that up, forgoes the vastness of the universe in exchange for clear borders, digestible ranges. Donghyuck can understand, in theory, the security that it would provide—knowing precisely how far you can go, where everything is—but in practice knows that he would go stir crazy if left stuck on his mother-planet. _Was_ going stir crazy, until a certain stranger crash-landed onto Anvion, and Donghyuck stumbled upon his downed ship.

Mark calls it fate; Donghyuck calls it a mere stroke of luck. The rest of their crew roll their eyes, but they admit that without the two of them meeting, the rest of them probably would’ve never clicked in place, would've never met. Donghyuck agrees: Mark’s _hopeless_ in certain areas, and there's no way he'd make it on his own. Hopeless, but lovable—which is why when Mark finally gets the _Firefly_ back in flying shape and offers to take Donghyuck along with him, Donghyuck agrees in a heartbeat.

Donghyuck’s mom has always said that he was born with arms reaching towards the sky, aiming for the galaxies up above since rotation one. She sent him off with a wistful, but still encouraging smile when the time came, pressing only a _visit every once in a while, don’t get yourself killed, okay?_ into their hug.

And Donghyuck, drifting along an ocean of stars, concludes that he’s pretty damn fond of keeping that promise.

—

Three dials in and Donghyuck’s starting to feel antsy. There’s only so much leg-room, only so many times he can play pong with an AI bot, and he thinks that he lost feeling in his ass ages ago. When Mark’s icon lights up on his display, he thanks the stars for a distraction. Energy conservation be damned.

The actual transmission, however, has him sobering up in his seat. There’s no video, no smiling Mark to greet him, only persistent static that drowns out most of his words. Between the buzzing and pauses, Donghyuck can only pick out a few things: “ _… gravity… thrown off… make it… later…”_ before the audio cuts out entirely, plunging him back to silence.

A moment after, another signal cuts through the system—this one a message from the _Firefly_ , indicating it safe to return. And so Donghyuck, a little stunned, a little dazed, a little all over the place, finds his bearings and pilots his pod back with shaky hands.

—

When he makes it back to the ship, Jeno and Jaemin are already there inspecting the _Firefly_ for damages. Donghyuck catches the tail-end of _well, I s’pose most of the parts are still salvageable…_ before the two are alerted to his presence.

Jeno turns around to meet him with his trademark smile, eyes scrunching into crescents, a soft _Duckie, you’re back_ slipping from his lips. Jaemin, however, can tell that something’s off with him via his empath senses. The corners of his mouth drag down as he asks, “Donghyuck? Is everything okay?”

Normally, Donghyuck would bristle at his emotions being brought to light so easily. Although Jaemin can’t really help his ability to be tapped into everyone around him at all times, they’d come to the agreement early on in their relationship that it’d be best for him to keep his readings to himself unless deemed urgent. For privacy reasons, as well as preventing Jaemin from martyring himself and taking it upon himself to fix all their problems.

However he’s too rattled right now to care, instead saying, “Is—is Mark back yet?”

Jaemin’s frown deepens, and Jeno’s expression falls to match. “No, we were the first two here. Did… did something happen?”

“I—” Donghyuck huffs, rakes a hand through his hair in equal parts frustration and worry— “I received a weird call from Mark earlier, back in my pod. The connection quality was shitty, and I couldn’t really tell what he was saying… but still. I’m getting a bad feeling here.”

“Oh.” Jeno sucks in a breath. Donghyuck may not be able to read emotions the way Jaemin can, but he can easily sense the concern that’s starting to build. “Well… we shouldn’t jump to conclusions too soon? I mean, Renjun’s not back yet either, maybe Mark’s just runnin’ late?”

Donghyuck sighs as Jaemin pulls him into a hug, absorbing some of the calm that Jaemin is able to infuse into others. “Maybe…” he says before trailing off. He figures that the other two can fill in the gaps—maybe, but Mark is usually one of the first three to reconvene without fail. They don’t really pay proper respect to his title as captain, it being more for conventions than anything, but they’ll all acknowledge (some more begrudgingly than others) that he _is_ the best pilot out of all of them.

“Let’s not panic too much yet. We’ll wait, at least until Renjun gets back, and then we’ll go from there, okay?” says Jaemin as Donghyuck sinks further into his arms, feeling helpless.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” As knocked off balance as Donghyuck is, Jeno and Jaemin are right. There’s no point working himself up over something like this. If things turn out to be fine, then he’ll be worried for no reason—not to mention agitating Jaemin as a side-effect.

And if Mark really is in trouble, well.

Donghyuck, as the one Mark named co-pilot all those cycles ago, is automatically up to bat. And there’s no good in a hysterical captain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no planned update schedule only vibes

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! as always, any and all thoughts are welcome in the comments below or on twt + cc! (also, if you spot any typos or flaws in my space logic, please feel free to point them out to me. Gently. i am flying blind with a lot of the logistics for the most part and google can only help me so much.)
> 
> twt: [@nanodarlings](https://twitter.com/nanodarlings)  
> cc: [aphelions](https://curiouscat.me/aphelions)  
> 
> 
> [inspiration list coming soon!]()


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